Mladic ruled fit to stand trial

Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic is fighting extradition to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic is expected back in Belgrade court shortly so his extradition hearing for war crimes can resume.

General Mladic was arrested yesterday after 16 years on the run but his court hearing was interrupted when his lawyer argued the 69 year-old was too ill to travel to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

He's accused of ordering the worst atrocity since World War II, the killing of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.

Europe correspondent Philip Williams reports.

PHILIP WILLIAMS, EUROPE CORRESPONDENT: The face for evil responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity. They're the charges that await in The Hague. But between now and then legal manoeuvres.

Mladic's lawyer says his client is too sick to face questions.

MILOS SALJIC, RATKO MLADIC'S LAWYER (translated): The judge attempted to finish the questioning but Ratko Mladic is in a very poor physical state. It's very hard to communicate with him so the judge stopped the questioning completely.

PHILIP WILLIAM: When he is taken to The Hague he will have to answer accusations that as commander of the Bosnian Serb forces he was behind the siege of Sarajevo - three and a half years of shelling and sniping that cost 10,000, mostly civilian, lives.

And the most horrific single massacre of that brutal conflict, the murder of more than 7,000 men and boys in a supposed UN protected safe haven of Srebrenica.

At the time general Mladic personally reassured people they were safe. The bodies of the thousands killed are still being recovered.

The cemetery's evidence of a crime that still haunts survivors.

This woman says this sea of white headstones is Mladic's accomplishment.

SURVIVOR (translated): That our children are buried here is his shame, a sea of white headstones and this just a drop in the sea.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: But Ratko Mladic is not without his supporters. There have been small protests supporting a man these people regard as a national hero.

SERBIAN WOMAN (translated): He's our hero but we arrest and imprison him. He defended the Serbs and now we've arrested him. I feel sorry for him.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: No sorrow though from world leaders who have applauded his arrest.

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: You should remember why it is we are pursuing this man and why he's pursued by the international tribunal in The Hague, in that he is accused of the most appalling war crimes.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: His detention now opens the way for Serbia's integration into the European Union, reward for finally complying with demands to give up those accused of war crimes.

CATHERINE ASHTON, FOREIGN AFFAIRS REP, EUROPEAN UNION: What I know is that we will approach that with renewed energy because of today and I look at the messages coming out of Brussels and European capitals to Serbia and hope that we will be able to move forward swiftly.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: But beyond the politics of his capture is the quiet consolation - for the victims and their families maybe, finally, justice will be done.

Philip Williams, Lateline.

TONY JONES: And just a short time a judge in Belgrade ruled that Ratko Mladic is fit to stand trial and should be extradited to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

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